In digital communication systems with a plurality of repeaters, devices are required which, after detection of a transmission error, permit the fault on the transmission path to be located from a terminal of the system. With respect to such fault location, a distinction is made between systems in which each repeater has an address of its own and, thus, can be controlled on a selective basis and systems with address-free fault location.
According to published German patent application No. DE-A1-29 42 410, in the systems of the first kind, a problem lies in the fact that the address of a repeater must be individually established; as a result, systems of the second kind are frequently preferred. German published Patent No. DE-C1-35 22 446 discloses a repeater for a system of the first kind which includes an address memory for a digital address. That prior art publication merely states that the address is the address assigned to the repeater, but does not disclose how and by which criterion the address is assigned to the repeater, how the addresses assigned to the repeaters are entered into the fault finder, or how the fault finder is informed where the repeater with a given address is located within the system.